A Pharisee the law defends

Verse 1
A Pharisee the law defends,
Whose end and spirit he o’rethrows,
Boldly the judgment-seat ascends,
Censures, rebukes on all bestows,
Sets himself up as judge supreme,
And all must give account to him.

Verse 2
Full of himself, and swoln with pride
All sects, except his own, he blames:
With confidence he dares decide,
O’re others the dominion claims,
He adds their followers to his own,
And reigns o’re all the church alone.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The Pharisees said unto him, why do they on the sabbath-day that which is not lawful?’—[Mark 2,] v. 24.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/574, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 461.
Publishing: Public Domain